NPG RECORDS & WARNER BROS. RECORDS ANNOUNCE TWO NEW PRINCE RELEASES, BOTH WITH PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED MUSIC FROM THE VAULT

GREATEST HITS COLLECTION PRINCE4EVER ARRIVESON NOVEMBER 22

REMASTERED, DELUXE VERSION OF PURPLE RAIN DUE IN EARLY 2017

October 21, 2016 (Burbank, CA) - Today, NPG Records and Warner Bros. Records announced two new Prince releases that will celebrate the iconic artist's music and introduce fans to previously unreleased material from his legendary vault. This will mark the first Prince recordings released since his passing on April 21st of this year.

Released on November 22nd in the U.S. and November 25th around the world, Prince 4Ever will bring together 40 of Prince's best-loved songs, including the blockbuster hits "When Doves Cry," "Let's Go Crazy," "Kiss," "Little Red Corvette," "Purple Rain," "Raspberry Beret," "Sign O' The Times," "Alphabet Street," "Batdance,""Cream," and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World."

Prince 4Ever includes "Moonbeam Levels" - a previously unreleased song originally recorded in 1982 during the 1999 sessions and later considered for the never released Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic album. Prince 4Ever will also arrive with a 12-page booklet of never-before-seen photos by acclaimed photographer Herb Ritts.

In addition, early next year will see the release of the much-anticipated remastered, deluxe version ofPurple Rain, plans for which were agreed with Prince before he passed away. The remaster of the classic Purple Rain will arrive with a second album of previously unreleased material. More details will be revealed closer to the release date.

As expected, New hits package redundant and unimaginative. I am glad it included Paisley Park, Boys and Girls, and Mountains, songs that deserve more exposure. Disappointed that the R and B hits Hate U, Partyman, and Adore didn't make the cut when several non-hits did.

You bring up a good point about Adore. Even though it wasn't actually a single, Adore was very popular on radio. Adore being included could have stimulated more sales of the new Hits compilation.

I need Electric Intercourse . but seriously, I'm not giving Warner's a dime, bootleg time

Do you steal from all record companies, or just Warner?

never before , it will be just Warners . If you don't think Warners stole from Prince you are an idiot and this is for U

.If I can buy Moonbeam Levels on its own I most definitely will do. If not, I like u will happily just get it 'somewhere'. In terms of stealing from the estate a possible royalty I would probbo plan to buy a track they release twice to cover the shortfall. .No one needs another greatest hits! We all have the tracks, casual fans will have bought the others after he left us - and aren't these still available anyway? PR remaster and unreleased materials shoulda come out first. For people that know about marketing etc they sure seem to be doing it badly!

never before , it will be just Warners . If you don't think Warners stole from Prince you are an idiot and this is for U

What did Warner steal from Prince? And why would you want to steal this release, when Prince himself recontracted with them out of choice in 2014 and this is the first retrospective release from that deal?

WTH? I already have those songs, all of them, and Moonbeam Levels grates on me like nothing else.

Who the hell are they vying for? Hardcore fans will not buy and it's too expensive for casual fans.

Once again, the most brilliant artist of our time will appear to come up short in the sales dept.

Can someone, anyone get it right??? Londell, i'm looking at you.

Thanks for the laughs, arguments and overall enjoyment for the last umpteen years. It's time for me to retire from Prince.org and engage in the real world...lol. Above all, I appreciated the talent Prince. You were one of a kind.

never before , it will be just Warners . If you don't think Warners stole from Prince you are an idiot and this is for U

What did Warner steal from Prince? And why would you want to steal this release, when Prince himself recontracted with them out of choice in 2014 and this is the first retrospective release from that deal?

Well they stole from Prince when they didn't give him enough money duh! I mean that's obveous theft right there! No faireness at all.. No sarcasm.... Gosh

never before , it will be just Warners . If you don't think Warners stole from Prince you are an idiot and this is for U

What did Warner steal from Prince? And why would you want to steal this release, when Prince himself recontracted with them out of choice in 2014 and this is the first retrospective release from that deal?

Well they stole from Prince when they didn't give him enough money duh! I mean that's obveous theft right there! No faireness at all.. No sarcasm.... Gosh

I wanna say they stole his life but I know for sure they stole his master's and that's why I signed with them to get them back. Don't act stupid 3rdeyeboy. You know Prince wrote SLAE aka SLAVE on his face.

I asked Prince what he was planning to do. He told me , I'm going to look for the ladder. I asked him what that meant. All he said was, sometimes it snows in April. - book D.M.S.R.

What did Warner steal from Prince? And why would you want to steal this release, when Prince himself recontracted with them out of choice in 2014 and this is the first retrospective release from that deal?

Well they stole from Prince when they didn't give him enough money duh! I mean that's obveous theft right there! No faireness at all.. No sarcasm.... Gosh

.

Prince got more than enough money from Warners, after all, many contracts are based on industry standard terms.

WTH? I already have those songs, all of them, and Moonbeam Levels grates on me like nothing else.

Who the hell are they vying for? Hardcore fans will not buy and it's too expensive for casual fans.

Once again, the most brilliant artist of our time will appear to come up short in the sales dept.

Can someone, anyone get it right??? Londell, i'm looking at you.

You are right. The greatest hits were flying off the shelves but I think this release is a little too late. Most people who wanted it already got it. Now if they were to include it with an issue of Rolling Stone and do another Prince issue, it would sell. Right now though, it seems like the hype after his death is over. They could give it away for free with the announcement of a new Prince website though. And the website could have tons of other stuff for sale. Just a thought. This kinda makes me a little sick for some reason.

Gotta Stop, Paisley Park, Girls & Boys, Peach...all singles in the UK, so worthy of an international greatest hits. They also had Pink Cashmere as a single, but seems to have failed the cut this time round.

This also backs up what I speculated earlier in the year in regards to Purple Rain remaining an in tact unaltered album and any extra tracks being put on a 2nd CD. Just makes sense right? Purple Rain is perfect as is, the only difference will be the sound quality, which remains to be seen if it will be better, we all know remasters can be botched to hell.

I'm not excited about the Purple Rain remaster, for this very reason. I only care about Disc 2.

Gotta Stop, Paisley Park, Girls & Boys, Peach...all singles in the UK, so worthy of an international greatest hits. They also had Pink Cashmere as a single, but seems to have failed the cut this time round.

Weren't most of those songs already on the other GH albums that Prince did not acknowledge? I ask because it's the only release I did not buy.They are catering for the public as a whole, those that never bought a single Prince album in their lives and now will be geting this one because he's dead and it's the cool thing to do. Also, it's a great gift for Xmas, for those fans that want to get friends that are not into Prince to get into Prince. That's why there's only one unreleased song on it; only real fans would be interest in those and this release caters for everyone else, imo.

Anyway, I guess we'll just have to wait for the releases intented for the fans. I'm praying for that jazz album he was working on, the live CD of the Piano & a Microphone tour, the collection of songs from the vault by decade (which they can put out one by one, I'll buy them) and any DVDs/CDs of live shows.

Like many of you I have mixed feelings about the release. At least it is better than some of the bootleg releases that are being sold in record shops.

My take is:

Good to see new CD's on the horizon

It is reasonably priced at €16 in Europe, so not unreasonable for 40 hits.

I will buy it just for my colection (I never bought Ultimate or the Best of, because Prince was away from WB when he released these).

Dissapointed it is a hits package, but I understand why they do this. It will be released a month before Christmas

I would much prefer a post Warners Hits album (there is a bootleg one out there for the past few months). I think the world needs to discover these more than songs they know by now. Since he died, WB is making all the money. There must be a market for his owned material. I can't understand why Sony doesn't push Musicology or Rainbow Children is still imposisble to buy. This is a crying shame.

Prince fought for his right to put out music his own way. I would prefer we get vinyl re-issues of his "Independent" releases and accompany this by a "Slave to Piano" NPG records era Hits Package.

I wish they would go after the people selling radio boradcasts in record stores.....

They can get this right, milk WB for the Money and casual fans, and get the "Fans" with the stuff they know we will buy regardless of marketing and release this independently. (God, Bowie had so much foresight in how he managed his post-death releases)

Let's face it, a Piano Live CD would probably sell to each Orger and the @prince twitter followers. They could shift 100K copies of that without even pushing.

The fans are looking for somethinhg to buy, the family need to get deals set up.

I think Prince was past selling for numbers, so I hope we get some of what we are looking for. Again, use the HIts as a cash cow, to release the stuff the fans require. Prince just wanted to get music out. I can't believe he wanted to have 4 versions of Greatest Hits in the store. I got too many Hits take on a new flavour.

if the number 13 is such a bad luck number, when there's no such thing as luck

I just hope this is a sing of regular Prince music to come. As an afterthought, listening to the live bootlegs is so comfroting as it makes me feel he is alive and I remember those shows as vividely as when I was there. This is why we need more "new" stuff.

I'm just gonna say this one more time and then I'm done trying to explain stuff: THIS IS NOT AN "ESTATE" RELEASE!!!! This is a WB release. Prince signed a contract with WB several years back. You all know this! While we don't know the details of that contract the contact is still valid!! Him dying does not change that!! The "estate" does not need to sign off on anything nor do the have any say so in these releases UNLESS WB specifically asked them for something that was not a part of the original contract!![Edited 10/21/16 12:53pm]